Valencia events

Las Fallas

Annual event, March 19

Las Fallas (literally, 'The fires' in Valencian) is an annual festival that Valencia is famous for. Traditionally it was a celebration of St. Joseph's Day, but over the years it has evolved into a celebration of fire itself: A week long fiesta and competition that some Valencian's spend the whole year working towards!

In it's beginning, villagers would celebrate by hanging rag dolls outside their home and lighting bonfires in the street. The next day, a church service would be held in honour of the patron saint of each town. Later, the dolls would become elaborate display scenes with figures that would depict people, events or beliefs in a satirical way, which were set slight at the end of the festival.

Today, these figures are now giant wooden and paper mache statues- some as big as 20 meters high. In recent years, there have been 700 different figures set up on purpose built wooden platforms all over the town and decorated by different groups who choose a theme and compete to win the prestige of 'best' statue.

The festival culminates with the judging of the statues, and a huge celebration at night when each statue is set alight and burnt to the ground. The best statue is set alight first, the second is next, and so on. There are also fireworks, bonfires, singing and dancing in the streets. All in all, its a spectacular although somewhat bizarre festival, worth the effort of planning your vacation around to enjoy the experience.

La Tomatina

Annual event,  held the last Wednesday of August

La Tomatina is one of the wackiest festivals in Spain which is held in Buñol, a small town about 38kms away from Valencia. In 2007, 40,000 tourists travelled to this small town (population 9,000) and threw 115 kgs of tomatoes at each other in an hour long extravaganza!

Originally, the festival was to honour the patron saint of Buñol, however no one is really sure how tomato-throwing became involved. There are a number of theories, but the popularity of the event, putting a small town on the map and encouraging tourism is really the only thing that seems to matter these days.

The lead up to the festival is a week long event with drinking, dancing and music. The night before the tomato throwing, a paella cooking contest is held in town. The next morning, trucks arrive in the Plaza del Pueblo carrying over-ripe tomatoes from a nearby village. At 10am the battle begins and lasts exactly one hour. After the event, fire trucks are brought in to hose down the streets. Tomato throwers either head to the local river to rinse off, or hose themselves down with garden houses supplied from bemused residents who enjoy the spirit of the event. 

Because Buñol is such a small town, accommodation is limited and many of those that attend the festival stay in Valencia, travelling to Buñol by car or bus. With more then 40,000 tourists expected to descend on this region next year, you'll need to book your accommodation well in advance to take part!

Formula 1 Car Racing Events

The "Circuito de la Comunitat Valenciana" was completed in 1999 with a garage capacity of 48 and stadium style seating for 150,000. Since then the two main events, the Moto GP and the Spanish Motorcycle Championships have brought car racing fans from far and wide, but the whole scene is about to get bigger with the announcement that Valencia will be the hosts of the prestigeous European Grand Prix event for 2008 until 2014, at an expense of 26 million euros per race!

There are also plans to build a new track in the harbour area of Valencia, which should be ready for the 2009 season. Tipped to be Spain's answer to the track in Monaco, the expense is sure to encourage more world class racing events, and with that, more tourist dollars spent in Valencia.

Fomula 1 Dates 2008 for Spain:

FIA Formula 1 World Championship 2008

Barcelona, April 27

Valencia August 24

MotoGP 2008

Jerez, 30 March

Barcelona, 8 June

Valencia, 26 October

Americas Cup Sailing Regatta

In 2007, Valencia was the first Euopean host for the world's most famous and prestigeous sailing event, the America's Cup. Valencia will also be the event host for the 33^rd Americas Cup challenge in 2009. With calm waters and fantastic weather, Valencia offers excellent sailing conditions and fabulous weather, allowing the event to be enjoyed by competitors and spectators alike.

The Inner Harbour of Valencia's Port has been under re-development since 2004 to transform the area into a world class racing village for the event. And with a spectctor capacity for one million viewers, this billion dollar event is guaranteed to impress next time around.

Keep a close eye on the developments for the 2009 event at www.americascup.com, and be sure to book you accommodation in Valencia well in advance.

You can learn more about the spanish culture sharing with people, a good way to do that is getting a Valencia rental.